She's the creative genius behind "Grey's Anatomy" and "Scandal." Her latest hit "Bridgerton" continues to feature women of color front and center.
This is the story of Shonda Rhimes.
This is the story of Shonda Rhimes.
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00:00I think that activism is beautiful, and I think that anybody who's willing to sort of stand up and put themselves on the line for anything that they believe in that strongly is beautiful.
00:30It's easy to get passionate about something that's interesting to you or something that sparks something in you, and that's not a thing you can make, that's not a thing you can find, I think it's just there, you know, it's sort of spiritual almost.
00:44I think it's important that from an early age, everybody's thinking about the idea of activism and being citizens and making change.
01:05I was a kid who, like, I remember riding around in a wagon with my mom and she went door to door, like, registering people to vote. So for me, I grew up that way, so I feel really lucky that I had that.
01:35I feel like I'm trying really hard to, the same way I try to write as if no one's actually paying attention, I try to live the same way, you know, it's important to sort of just be yourself as hard as you can.
02:05She's my partner in crime, and she's one of the smart young women coming up in this world, and I wanted her to see all of these amazing women.
02:35I think the way we're going to make television continue to look like the way the world looks is really simple. I mean, it's who is telling the stories.
03:05A lot has been made about the fact that Kerry Washington has been the first African American woman to star in a network drama in 40 years, and that is something.
03:34I like to believe that something is that the business has finally started to catch up with reality.
04:00I sort of can't believe that we're going to actually have Shondaland Thursdays, which was a joke that I used to put up on Twitter. I would say Shondaland Thursday, but now we're actually going to have Shondaland Thursday.
04:30I think a lot of people dream, and while they are busy dreaming, the really happy people, the really successful people, the really interesting, engaged, powerful people are busy doing.
04:52I want to thank Shonda for that introduction, but I also want to thank her for writing about powerful women characters and making TV look like America.
05:11I want to thank Shonda for that introduction, but I also want to thank her for writing about powerful women characters and making TV look like America.
05:41It's an organization and a movement that I think is amazing. The need for everybody to sort of become involved in citizenship and voting feels more urgent than ever now.
05:55Megan Turnin, who's sort of involved in all of this organization, made me feel like girls are so important, and as we all know, girls move the world.
06:03When you are the only one, people feel you must represent everyone, but that is not storytelling.